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Goddess University: Athena the Multitasker

This past week, I was assigned five hundred seventy-eight pages to edit and revise in three days.

In a perfect storm of events, the final edits for both my latest novel and my Masters project came in on the same day. That meant that this week, I had five hundred seventy-eight pages to edit, revise, and submit, five classes a day to teach, a sober grad night party committee to lead, out-of-town guests for dinner, my family to care for, two blog entries to write, a new novel in progress, three class sets of papers to grade, two other published novels to market, and four separate meetings with a student’s parent, my department, my professor, and my principal.

It was time to call in Athena.

Athena is one of three virgin Greek goddesses. Perhaps this is where she gets her extra time.

Athena puts even the most audacious multi-tasker to shame. She is the Greek goddess of wisdom, just war, art, handicrafts, agriculture, weaving, and reason. Her inventions include the horse bridle, the plow, the ship, the chariot, and the trumpet, among many other useful things. She is featured in countless myths and legends. She is, in short, a total badass by modern standards. The girl gets things done. Period.

Witness Athena’s presence in your life when you are faced with a multitude of tasks at once, when someone asks you for advice, when two arguing parties look to you for advice, or when you are called on to defend your family or friend from attack. Athena’s message to you is that you can take care of business.

Athena says: Just do your work, don’t complain about it. Find work you love and do your best. In this way, you will serve others and your work will be good.

You know Athena is around when you can look back at your week from the perch of Friday with the satisfaction of knowing you got it all done.

The glory is yours for the taking, Athena says. Now go out and take it.

Fynn Kildare of THE ARROW is a virologist, healer, surfer, rock star groupie, and assassin defender of her family. Even she never had to revise five hundred twenty-eight pages in one week.